Vancouver Mycological Society presents "Fungal collections at the UBC Herbarium: Overview and Recent Developments" Presentation by Justin Ngo 7pm Tuesday, June 10th 2925 Floral Hall 5251 Oak St, Vancouver B.C. "Justin Ngo is one of two Curatorial Assistants under Karen Golinski at the Bryophyte, Lichens, and Fungi actions at the UBC Herbarium, located in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Science studying predominantly plant biology, though many of the courses he has taken as an undergraduate student have touched upon the immense physiological and molecular complexity of the fungi. Having worked at the UBC Botanical Garden and the Temporal Ecology Lab in Forestry before beginning this position, he has had experience in handling delicate botanical material and managing large databases. The UBC Herbarium in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum holds more than 91 thousand accessioned dried fungus and lichen specimens, serving as a key resource for fungal and lichenological research, university education and public outreach. The two collections, which emphasize B.C. specimens, are housed in 90 specially-designed cabinets in a unique, publicly-accessible space. Specimen cabinets are punctuated by stunning displays, including shadowboxes illustrating a species of Cortinarius named for Oluna Ceska, and an artful presentation of the Sherman Brough lichen-dyed wool collection. UBC is part of a global effort to increase the visibility and usability of herbarium collections by making data and images available online through publicly-accessible data portals. We deeply appreciate the pioneering efforts of Dr. R.F. Scagel, who initiated the process of recording UBC specimen metadata in 1981. With the assistance of student and community volunteers, we have made substantial progress in processing a large backlog of specimens. Soon, with the help from mycological community members, we will start uniting specimen records with images from the Mushroom Observer and other sources to further facilitate biodiversity discovery and appreciation."
